The Witching Hour
by TheCopyMistress
Summary: It's the middle of the night, and Kakashi would give anything to see her again.


Special thanks to Kakashisgf for looking this over for me! My submission for KakaSaku Month, Week 3 Day 3.

Prompt: 3 A.M.

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This was idiotic. He didn't even believe in this stuff. Yet here he was, burning sage and unplugging his microwave and refrigerator. The silence around him was almost suffocating, and though he was about to do something most unholy, he prayed that it would work.

He had drawn the rune circle in salt, just in case. The single candle in the middle provided no light, but he had memorized and rehearsed the lines a dozen times over. It was in Latin and he didn't understand it, but the witch in the shop had said that as long as his intentions were clear, he should be safe. Should be.

He closed his eyes, the foreign text scrolling behind his eyelids in glowing gold letters. The words flowed from his lips to thicken the air of his studio apartment. Low and monotone, impressed with the only thing he desired from both this world and the one beyond. This was his last chance.

When he had finished the specified phrases, he opened his eyes to look around warily.

"If there is any entity here tonight, show me a sign." Charcoal eyes darted around the salt circle. "Please." He added as an afterthought.

Despite how stupid he felt at the moment, he couldn't help but hope.

"Sakura…"

It was all he could do.

He had been running late, just like always. It was only about ten minutes, but that was all the time needed for some psycho to walk into the cafe and start shooting people at random. Three dead, eight injured. Three dead. Only two were victims. One of them was her.

The police let him past the caution tape to identify her. Two shots, they said. One in the arm, the next in the back of the head. She was probably the closest to the door, having just walked in. It was quick, they said. Merciful. The word hadn't even finished leaving the cop's mouth before Kakashi had punched him square in the jaw. There's nothing merciful about cold-blooded murder.

He spent the night at the station before the psych eval attributed his outburst to grief and let him walk. Home wasn't an option, so he wandered the city streets for hours and by the end of it, he didn't even know where he was. His phone had died, and it took him another three hours to find his bearings and return to his apartment.

It had been two weeks since then. Every day was just more pain, and after losing his father, his best friends, his mentor, and finally the woman who stole his heart, Kakashi didn't know if he could take it anymore. He didn't have what it took to take his own life, so he looked into bringing hers back.

Desperation quickly won over reason. A questionable website pointed him to a little shop on the other side of town, and the woman inside pointed him towards this moment.

" _Between the hours of 3 and 4, the veil between the living and the dead is at its weakest. Under the new moon, while the world is dark, we can touch those who we wish to touch just one more time."_

He had turned off his cell phone at 2:56. The required rites took him four minutes when he had last timed it. It was 3 am. He called her name and waited.

Maybe he wasn't being specific enough? The offerings he placed within the circle had all belonged to her: her favorite sweater, a medical journal chock-full of her notes, the locket she'd worn since childhood… And himself. He belonged to her, wholly and truly.

"I need you…" He doubted begging would earn him merit points amongst the deceased, but he was out of options. "I don't know how much longer I can take this. Sometimes, I'll wake up in the morning and roll over, but your side of the bed is always cold. I'll catch myself making dinner for two. I miss your laughter, even though I used to tease you about how ugly it was. I miss the crappy rom-coms that you always thought you were dragging me to against my will. I'll admit, I secretly loved them, because you were always so happy afterwards. You loved them, and I loved you. I still do. I still need you, so please… Say something."

He brought his hands rub at his face, far too aware of the tears that fell too often nowadays. He coughed harshly and sniffled.

"I'll do anything to see you again."

It only took a moment before the candle snuffed out. He was certain he had shut all of the windows, and the tapping on the wooden floors was not him.

 _Kakashiii..._

The candle flickered back to life, dimmer than before. Across the circle, a pair of eyes snapped open. Brilliant emerald eyes. He'd recognize them anywhere. He stared unwaveringly back, smiling for the first time in two weeks. A pale hand extended towards him, fingers elegant and slender. He placed his own palm against hers, the shape familiar in all the right ways.

"I am yours, my love."

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Thank you for reading! I'm on Tumblr as the the-copy-mistress! If y'all have any prompts you'd like to see, send them my way!


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